Last night I gave a talk on Zen and Social Media at the Women's Business Club at 44 Portland Place. It was a great evening with a lively discussion on social media platforms, tools and techniques for being effective.

One of the women ran a Pilates practice and was very against the idea of engaging in social media, and was quite vocal about this in the discussion. I responded to this by saying that if you don't want to engage in this stuff, then don't. There are other ways of marketing your services and raising the profile of your business. At the end of the session, this woman thanked me for my presentation and re-iterated her dislike for social media. But then she added:

"But this is the way things are going, so I guess I'll have to get involved even though I hate it".

Hate it. These are strong words. I recall they were accompanied by a visible shiver. Is this really true? Does everybody who is running a business NEED to get involved in social media? I think it's a great question and a complicated one. I am lucky enough that most people who come to me don't need convincing that social media might benefit their business; they have already come to that conclusion and want concrete help with making their efforts more effective.

But what about those who are not convinced. Should they be told to just get over it and get on board? I'm not so sure.

Before anyone jumps into the murky but exciting world of social media, they need to really think about why they are doing it and what their end goal is. Only then can you be strategic about how social media can help you. Social media without a plan and system might be a big time waster for your business at best, and at worst, damage your reputation.

I think that you will agree that a major marketing objective of most businesses is to drive traffic to the company website. Here visitors can find out more about a company's products or services and possibly be moved towards signing up to a mailing list or even directed towards a purchase.

Social media is a great way of driving traffic to your website. Through following a link on a social network such as Twitter or Facebook, or reading a blog post or watching a video, potential customers become aware of your offering. Social sharing especially through the Facebook Like button and the new Google +1 button, adds another dimension to this as we tend to place more weight on things our friends recommend. This is becoming increasingly important as the amount of information we are exposed to on a daily basis increases exponentially. Social sharing allows us to cut through the noise.

Social media is great for increasing profile. This is especially important for individual consultants and freelancers who want to position themselves as experts in a niche area. Through creating or curating content with blogs, videos and podcasts, and sharing this through social networks, the individual starts to become known as a thought leader in their area. The benefit of this is two-fold: (a) their online profile and message is strong and clear with ample social proof for potential clients, and (b) opportunities for projects, speaking and joint ventures start to come their way.

But engaging in all this does take time but perhaps less than people think if done effectively. My advice to the Pilates practitioner would be to identify what's missing in the business and then look to see if social media can help with this, not the other way around. Then I would look at ways of engaging with social media that are fun. Perhaps Twitter bores her to tears but making videos for a YouTube channel might rock her boat.

I do believe that social media is revolutionising the way we do business, letting us connect with a global audience. Yet it’s also the biggest productivity killer created in our lifetime.

How do you reconcile the two? Come find out at my From Apps to Zen Bootcamp on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 June in London.

Watch this video now (it only takes 3 minutes), and I’ll tell you ALL about what’s in store for you.

I think it's safe to say that I have a bit of a fascination with time.

As someone who helps busy people work better, I am constantly reading and testing ways of saving time and being more effective, especially when it comes to our biggest time wasters in business (email and social media). 

There is an old saying that 'time is money'. But that's not the full story. You can always get more money, generally by working harder or by spending less, but getting more time is a trickier one. Once it's gone, that's it.

If you have ever read any books in the personal development genre from Stephen Covey and his habits to Tim Ferriss and his work week, they all focus on the idea that if you look back on your life, what are the things you are going to remember? The hours you spent at work getting to Inbox Zero, crafting the perfect blog post or being controversial on Twitter? Or do you remember the long weekend you went on with your family, the ebook that you wrote and self-published, or the new sport you took up and found a passion for?

Which are the things we will remember? What are the things that we will look back on with pride and satisfaction?

Tim Ferriss in the 4-Hour Work Week talks about the difference between being active and being productive, something I elaborate on in my ebook From Apps to Zen: 26+ Ideas for Building a Business with Balance. I have a few reminders around my desk to this effect to make me question 'what exactly am I doing right now?' and to test am I really being producive or am I just engaging in busy-work. I also have a sign asking me 'what is the best use of my time right now?'. I find these little reminders helpful when I find myself straying into my inbox or onto social media without a proper intention or goal.

Over the past three years that I have been working with the social web I have learnt many hacks and tricks to reduce my time on social media while still ensuring that it is useful for my businesses. Having a strategy, plan and system for my social media use is crucial to ensure that I know why and when I am going to use social media and how it fits into my wider business goals. 

I've written on this blog before about my personal goal of living a part-time location independent life and I am well on my way to it at the moment with longer term trips to Vietnam and India planned for this year as well as shorter trips to Europe and around the UK. Knowing where my online activities fit into the wider picture of my business allows me to continue this work while I am away and set up automated systems that take care of themselves.

Time and time again (no pun intended) with people I work with or meet, I see the same questions coming up that people are seeking answers for. Questions like 'how do I make time for this stuff?, 'how can I know if it's being effective?', 'how can I get my message heard through the digital clutter' and 'what do I prioritise?'. These are all great questions and there is no one right answer - the solution will be different for each person.

Thinking about these questions and also the question of how do busy entrepreneurs make time for learning and playing around with the social web, gave me one of those light blub moments that I cherish.

And so I pleased to announce that on the 11 and 12 June I will be running a From Apps to Zen Bootcamp at social innovation space The Hub Islington in central London. This weekend intensive workshop will be super practical (bring your laptop!) as we will be putting into place the things we learn about and discuss as a group - everything from Twitter followers, to LinkedIn events, to Facebook pages, social media strategies and systems, videos, podcasting and blogging. All in one weekend.

Spaces for the Bootcamp will go on pre-sale to my 8fold mailing list on Tuesday, 3rd May when it is announced in my regular monthly newsletter. Subscribers will also be offered a time-limited special deal so if you are interested in hearing more, do sign up to the newsletter here (I promise no spam, just free tips and resources each month):

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I will leave with the words from one more note I have on my wall which reads:

'Time = Life. Don't waste it.' Wise words.

This is one of my favourite videos of the year so far.

Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow at Google (that is his actual job title!) talks about how compassion in the workplace is good for people and great for the bottom line.

A compelling business case for more compassion in the workplace. Chade-Meng - I salute you!

This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week. Taking place in 104 countries and with over 10 million people participating, this week has been celebrating entrepreneurship in all its guises in the hope of inspiring others to follow the entrepreneurial path.

Enterprising Woman at THECUBE

Wednesday was Women’s Enterprise Day and to pay tribute to female entrepreneurship, I hosted a networking and sharing event for women at co-working space THECUBE. Entitled Enterprising Women, the event was packed with over 50 female entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in the making, who gathered to listen to talks, take part in workshops or hear advice in a business clinic.

Downstairs in THECUBE’s seminar room, the evening kicked off with a hands-on workshop from Holistic Marketing Consultant, Kathryn McMann followed by creative business consultant, Lucy Kyle on Making your Business More Effective.

Meanwhile upstairs in the Brainstorm Area, Nathalie Nahai, a London-based designer, illustrator and psychologist was wowing the ladies with an interactive workshop on Body Language and Psychological Techniques for Business followed by round-table discussions on Creative Collaborations and Building Trusting Relationships from Alison Coward from Bracket Creative and Pilar Orti from Unusual Connections.

Later in the evening, Lisa Goll, founder of the London Writer's Cafe shared her experiences of building the successful online community while Bonnie Wong founder of Composition Advisory Limited, gave a talk on innovation and vision intriguingly titled Making an Innovation Sandwich. Lastly, but not least, Araceli Camargo-Kilpatrick, founder of THECUBE and Idea Engineering gave her perspective on how ideas are formed.

If that wasn’t enough, business consultants Ellen O'Hara, Lucy Kyle and Isebail MacKinnon were booked out for their 15 minute business clinics while Kate Warwick from PR Savvy dished out no-nonsense PR advice.

Female Entrepreneurship

As part of my research for my welcome speech for the evening, I found some interesting statistics. There is a real ambition in the UK for people to take control of their working life and start their own business. According to the GEW research, 50% of the population would like to start an enterprise but only 5.8% are actually in the process of doing so. There is also a demographic gap with more than twice as men as women starting businesses in any one year. 

However, there is good news and more and more women in the UK are realising their potential and starting their own businesses. A recent survey of 1000 women entrepreneurs found that 70 per cent of those polled started their business because they wanted more flexible working conditions and 75 per cent of respondents said work life balance is better when you’re running your own business.

The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is a global campaign and powerful idea that if a girl in the developing world is supported when she reaches adolescent to stay in school and remain healthy, this has a knock-on effect in terms of not only the quality of her life but the quality of life of her existing family, her future children and the wider community. This moving and inspirational video explaining the idea has been viewed nearly 1.8 million times:

 

The Women Effect

This powerful message combined with thinking about Women’s Enterprise Day started me thinking about The Women Effect.

At the Vancouver Peace Summit in September last year, the Dalai Lama declared: "The world will be saved by the Western woman." What he was articulating was that the time for masculine values was over and that a more feminine and compassionate approach would be the one to save the world from economic and environmental meltdown.

In my experience, many women start a business not just for personal or financial benefit. Research has shown that women are much more likely to start a business with a community or environmental benefit rather than just for financial gain. A woman-led management style is also more inclusive and supportive and could see the death of traditional hierarchical structures in the workplace.

I would like to make a bold assertion, that similar to The Girl Effect in developing countries, encouraging women into business has a Women Effect much broader then the impact on the individual. As a female business owner we can design our businesses to suit our lifestyle and family commitments not the other way around. We can provide strong female role models for our children and can demonstrate that having a career and a family are not mutually exclusive. More female entrepreneurship will ensure flatter workplaces and a more feminine and flexible approach to management. And lastly, The Women Effect will see a direct rise in the number of socially responsible businesses to such an extent that maybe, in the future, to not be socially responsible will be as antiquated as the Walkman.

My heartfelt thanks to each and everyone of the amazing and enterprising women who came on Wednesday and let’s hear it for female entrepreneurs!

 

 

 

Last Thursday, I travelled with my partner Alex to a far flung corner of Wales to the Do Lectures. The brain child of Howie’s founders David and Clare Hieatt, the Do invites 26 ‘Doers’ to come and speak about their journey to a small number of attendees.

Part camping holiday, part ‘the best conference you’ve ever been to’, part making new friends, the Do is all about inspiring people (speakers and attendees alike) to Do something. The motto of the Do is:

Ideas + Energy = Change.

The four days we spent at fforest (home of the Do) was exciting, enlightening and life changing. As well as being very cold! If you visit fforest (and I recommend you do, book one of the domes - they rock!)

I enjoyed the talks from all the speakers and videos of the 26 talks will be ready soon for all to view for free on the Do website but in the meantime, I wanted to share with you over the next few blog posts some of my thoughts and takeaways.

The youngest speaker at the event was 23 year old Maggie Doyne. After a privileged North American upbringing, Maggie, like many of her contemporaries, postponed university and set out to travel the world. After a stint volunteering in India she met a Nepalese girl who had been forced to leave her country due to the civil war. When the border to Nepal finally opened up, Maggie and her new friend went in search of her home village. Once in Nepal Maggie was struck by the poverty of the children that she met. Determined to make a change, she took $5,000 of her own savings and started to build Kopila Valley Children’s Home. Today Maggie and the community look after 30 children at the home and have built a school to educate 200 more.

Maggie was an inspiring and heartfelt speaker and even the grown men in the tent were in tears at her story. Maggie’s message that we can all learn from is:

Do not wait if there is something that you really want to do.

Whether it is starting your own business or learning a language or travelling the world or making a difference in your community, don’t wait until you have enough money, are settled enough or are less ‘busy’. You will always find excuses why not to do something.

Sometimes starting a project is the hardest step. A goal can seem too large, too impenetrable to start. The old saying asks “how do you eat an elephant?” and answers “one bite at a time” and this is the way to tackle what we call BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Blogger Michael Nobbs recommends setting aside 20 minutes each day to work on a big goal – a strategy I used to write my ebook From Apps to Zen and would recommend.

So don’t wait.

Think of a BHAG that you want to achieve and get started today.

 

One of my favourite co-working spaces, THECUBE, debuts their new collaboration platform on Tuesday, 23rd March in which they will invite the creative community and their members to do collaborative brainstorming in order to generate new ideas, solve problems, and tap into each others resources. 

The format of the day is as follows:

Introductions: Each person will have 20 seconds to introduce themselves and then 60 seconds to write down their problem.

Brainstorming & Problem Solving: 5 Problems will be drawn out of a bowl at random and then as a group we will help solve it. This problem can be anything from discussing a new idea, marketing, accounting, anything.

Contact Building: The next portion of the day everyone will share 1 contact with each person, this can be a direct contact or a resource. This means that everyone should walk about with 20 new contacts or resources to help them advance their idea.

RSVP: Araceli info@thecubelondon.com